Dr Wright's secret to taking fewer vitamins with you on holiday

If you take more than just a few supplements and are travelling – especially for more than a couple of days – you may find it bothersome to carry all those pills around. It takes extra time to get them all together, they take up valuable luggage room and often we forget to take them, says Nutrition & Healing’s Dr Jonathan Wright.

But since, they’re important to staying as healthy as we can, Dr Wright has a solution.

Revealed: How to reduce the number of vitamin capsules and pills you need to carry around, but still get the same effect as if you did

The secret is recognising which supplements your body can “store up,” and which ones it can’t and really needs every day, reveals Dr Wright.

Some of us know this already, but we seldom, if ever, take advantage of it: Our bodies store up fat-soluble nutrients and supplements and use what’s “stored up” when it’s not our daily intake.

These include not only the essential to life fat-soluble nutrients – vitamins A, D, E, K, and the omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids – but also CoEnzyme Q10, tocotrienols and others.

Here’s what Dr Wright suggests you do…

For example: If you take 5000 IU vitamin D daily (a minimum for optimal health for most adults), and you’ll be gone for a week, then take 35,000 IU extra (7 x 5000 IU) just once before you leave. Your body will average it out.

Another way to do this is to take twice as much each day before you leave for the same number of days you’ll be gone. Again, your body will draw on the stored nutrients as they are needed.

But be warned: This strategy only works for fat-soluble vitamins and minerals

Unfortunately, this won’t work for water-soluble, poorly stored vitamins and supplements, such as vitamin C. And while our bones store calcium really well, it’s wisest to take magnesium with calcium.

But back to “less supplements while travelling”: You can reduce the pill count a little with the store-it-in advance strategy above. And for the technically inclined, yes, you can employ a “make it up afterwards” strategy by taking the appropriate extra amounts of these supplements – vitamins A, D, E, K, omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids – after you return.